By Quinn Patrick
Some expected that new draft regulations released by the Trudeau government this week would see tech giants like Google and Meta reverse their positions, however on Tuesday, Google announced that will not be the case.
While news content will still remain searchable on Google’s website and other products for the time being, a spokesperson for the company said that Google will “await the publication of final regulations” regarding the Online News Act before making a decision on pulling news.
The draft regulations underwent a 30-day comment period for feedback and proposed changes, which has now come to a close.
“Unfortunately, the proposed regulations fail to sufficiently address the critical structural problems with C-18 that regrettably were not dealt with during the legislative process,” said a Google spokesperson.
The company said that they were prepared to pull Canadian news content from Google Search as well as their other platforms as a result of Bill C-18 passing through legislation.
“We continue to have serious concerns that the core issues ultimately may not be solvable through regulation and that legislative changes may be necessary,” the spokesperson continued.
Conversely, the office of Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, believes that a deal can still be reached under the current legislation.
“We remain confident that we can work constructively to address questions or concerns through the regulatory process,” said a spokesperson for St-Onge’s office.